Ubisoft has disbanded the crew behind Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown

Ubisoft has disbanded the crew behind the recently-released platformer Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, according to a reputable French journalist. The alleged cause for disbanding the crew is an easy one. The sport didn’t meet gross sales expectations and Ubisoft “wanted extra fingers to assist on different tasks that had a greater gross sales potential.” That is in response to a translation published on Reset Era.

“A lot of the crew members who labored on Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown have shifted to different tasks that may profit from their experience,” Abdelhak Elguess, a senior producer on the sport, told Eurogamer.

Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown offered round 300,000 copies throughout its first few weeks of availability, totaling $15 million in income, as indicated by a report by Insider Gaming. These gross sales figures allegedly “sealed the destiny” of the sport and its dev crew. Ubisoft staffers reportedly pushed larger ups for a sequel, or extra DLC, however had been allegedly denied.

Oddly, the corporate’s executives reportedly refused to greenlight a sequel on the grounds that it will cannibalize gross sales of the unique. I’m unsure that’s how sequels work, particularly once they come out years after the primary recreation, however no matter.

That is unhappy for plenty of causes. Initially, the sport was nice. The Metacritic aggregate review score sits at 86, whereas consumer evaluations hover at round 8.5 out of ten. I performed it and located it to be a improbable Metroidvania that would simply sit subsequent to among the classics of the style, like Hole Knight and Castlevania: Symphony of the Evening.

It’s additionally a bummer as a result of avid gamers continually complain that Ubisoft doesn’t attempt something new, as a substitute counting on iterative enhancements of its core franchises or making use of tried-and-true gameplay mechanics to pre-existing IPs. Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is a retro-style throwback, positive, nevertheless it’s not one other lifeless open world map crammed with fetch quests and stealth missions.

By all accounts, it additionally seems to be to have been a optimistic improvement expertise. The French journalist who broke this story, Gautoz, mentioned he heard from a number of workers that it was the perfect recreation manufacturing expertise of their lives. It was seen as a “beacon of hope” for “folks that had been burnt out by” the limitless improvement cycle of Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Why did it underperform? There’s no onerous knowledge, however this was a 2D sidescroller that value a whopping $60. That may very well be one cause. Solely Nintendo can get away with charging full price for retro-style titles.

It’s additionally price noting that this was simply one among two sidescrolling Prince of Persia video games to launch this yr, which may have injected some confusion into the market. Evil Empire, the crew behind Lifeless Cells, additionally soft-launched The Rogue Prince of Persia back in May as an early access title. It is a roguelite spin on the normal franchise video games.